Just saw an interesting piece from Bob Parker of AMR Research. In that research group's newsletter 'Alert on Manufacturing,' Parker describes two quite different types of IT organizations at manufacturing companies. He says there are those that 'are focused on the delivery of applications, in effect custodians of the assets, and there are IT organizations that use those assets for productive organizational transformation, in effect change agents.'

In other words, some IT organizations are focused on cutting the cost of information systems. Others are focused on creating new business capabilities. You can guess which one he thinks has a brighter future.

That brought to mind our story this month on the world's largest supply chain execution (SCE) software suppliers (Top supply chain execution software suppliers). Until now, we've referred to this software segment as best-of-breed warehouse management system (WMS) suppliers. However, what the suppliers are offering has changed considerably of late. In addition to WMS, they now often include transportation, yard, labor and order management. And of course, there's supply chain inventory visibility and event management included here too. Obviously a name change was in order.

Meanwhile, the players in the SCE space are changing beyond the consolidation now underway. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) suppliers are joining the fray, offering much more functionality in their WMS packages than in the past.

All of this is a long way from the early days of WMS. If WMS was even the right phrase back then. So much of what was initially offered was little more than pick/pack/ship software.

In talking to Bob Trebilcock, who has covered this space for Modern for years, he had this to say. 'The morphing of WMS into a broader suite of integrated supply chain execution solutions really does create new capabilities. For instance, a WMS determines the most efficient way to pick an order, and a TMS creates the best way to ship an order. When you link the two together, you can now optimize those processes end to end. You create the best plan to pick and ship an order while still meeting customer service levels.'

But as Trebilcock points out, the ability of SCE software to change processes doesn't stop there. It also links those processes within the four walls to many other events across the broader supply chain. 'That's the vision that supply chain execution companies are working on as they develop software for the future,' he adds.

And as Parker would agree, being a change agent really is the future when it comes to information systems.